Synergistic impact of cellulose nanocrystals and calcium sulfate fillers on adhesion behavior of epoxy resin

In this study we have explored the adhesive properties of the modified epoxy resin. The modified epoxy resin was prepared by mixing cellulose nano-crystals (CNCs) and calcium sulfate fillers (CaSO4 fillers) with epoxy resin via sonication technique. The successful synthesis of the modified epoxy resin was characterized by infra-red transformed (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The characteristics peaks appeared at 880 cm(-1) and 1052 cm(-1) were assigned to -CH bending and -Si-O-C bending vibration. The appearance of these peaks confirmed the successful synthesis of the modified epoxy resin. The surface morphology, size and shape of CNCs, CaSO4 fillers and modified epoxy resin were examined by atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The thermal stability of the CNCs, CaSO4 fillers and modified epoxy resin was investigated by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The thermal decomposition for the modified epoxy resin was occurred at 370 degrees C. The adhesive properties including tensile modulus, strength and elongation at break of CNCs, CaSO4 fillers and modified epoxy resin were determined by using universal material testing machine. The obtained results showed remarkable improvement in the adhesive properties of the modified epoxy resin.